Well Problems

I had posted this on another forum and they suggested I Xpost to this forum.

As I said over there:

"I'm new here. And to be blunt, I don't even have anything to offer you. I don't know much about
much of anything.... *SIGH* I'm just a girl who never paid much attention. I CAN make a baby laugh and
I can cook. Maybe send you a good recipe, in lieu of any advice I might be able to give you at any time.

Anyway, I tried to peruse your topics to see if I could find an answer, and couldn't.
Maybe it was there but I couldn't understand what you all were saying. I hope that my
question isn't redundant and if it is, if you would be so kind as to just post a link to a thread
that may answer my question, I'd so appreciate it.

My husband and I live in a new three year old house. New well.... heck, new everything. The well is
a very irritating subject to me....BECAUSE, we have water that has a bit of sediment in it.
I finally allowed my hair to grow out white and it now has a yellow tint to it due, (I think ) to that darned
well.

It was TERRIBLY dirty when we moved in, so I finally talked my husband into a filter. Now we have a bit of
sediment and now our sinks and tubs are a beautiful shade of blue. Yes, I scrub very hard and the blue does
come off. What is the blue anyway? Turquoise or some shade of blue. But worse than that is the sediment.
Which I fear is eventually going to clog our pipes. Will the sediment clog our pipes?

I want CLEAN water. This is why am I writing. I flushed the toilet the other day and it didn't catch. I left the room
and then the house and I guess it ran all day to the point we had really ugly brown water running through the
toilet. We made a pack to just flush toilets, until this gets better, and the water now is just a slight brownish color.

What can I do? None of this is important to my husband. He dares me to try to get anyone up here.
He know it all and knows nothing can be done, that he hasn't already done. (That filter from Lowe's)
Please can you help me? They had to dig a really far way down...Is 420 feet far for a well?
I think that's how far it was... I'm sure that after reading my plea for help and you're thinking "That's clear as mud."
But I really do not know how to explain it and if I say too much to the husband, he just gets mad. If I knew
what I was talking about, he wouldn't get mad, but since I don't know what I am talking about...I'm just hoping you
can educate me enough, so that I know what I am talking about and we can get this fixed. What's making my
water reddish brown and the sinks blue? And can it be fixed, and if so how?

I've kept my mouth shut for three years now. But before I speak up, I really need some backing from you guys.
Ill keep looking at your threads to see if I can find something. Until then, God bless.

The first step is to get the water tested for hardness, pH, iron at a minimum. You can take a sample to a water treatment dealer or Sears or find a local lab that tests water. I believe the blueing is because of low pH. When the pH is below 7.0 (neutral) it is on the acid side of the pH scale and will corrode the pipes. With the proper filtration, you will be very pleased at the quality of your water, but first a water test is needed.

I flushed the toilet the other day and it didn't catch. I left the room
and then the house and I guess it ran all day to the point we had really ugly brown water running through the
toilet. We made a pack to just flush toilets, until this gets better, and the water now is just a slight brownish color.

Click to expand...

This may or may not be clouding the issue. Generally if the turbidity gets worse with drawing down the well, that suggests a fine clay sediment so that indicates a well formation problem. A new well may need to be developed to open up the aquifer and flush out the fines but after three years, one would have expected the sediment to diminish. Flow rate limiting and filtration may be your only option left, short of trying for a new well.

You could also be having iron and ph issues which can be mitigated with the right equipment but first the water needs to be tested.

With the exception of the possible ph issue, my well has some of the symptoms you describe except I have grey clay. Combine the grey of the clay with the iron and my iron filter backwash looks like coffee with cream.

My pump is flow rate limited by my micronizer that aerates the water to precipitate the iron. That helps to keep the clay from being stirred up and brought up from the well. The media in my iron filter will catch the small amount of clay fines but a larger amount of clay could glob up and not backwash. It is a bit of a conundrum... more flow is needed for effective backwash but more flow means less aeration and more clay stirred up.